Reyna hauls a very unstable Mystic home and away from the shop.
- Reyna seized a hold of Mystic's arm and dragged him out of the shop. She wasn't sure what was wrong with him, but the last time he had grown it had been crazy. Him having a meltdown in the middle of the shop when there were possible customers to walk in on it all and with Smokey around didn't strike her as the best of ideas.
Mystic simply allowed himself to be hauled along. 'I'm sorry,' he mumbled, sounding very much like he was only half awake, 'I don't mean to be so... so...'
"Bat s**t crazy?" Reyna answered with a quiet chuckle. "Yeah, I know."
The elder Fiend clung to his guardian's arm as she opened up a portal and stepped through. Fuzzily, somewhere in the back of his mind, he recognized that his guardian did not cast spells, not even simple ones for portals, unless it was an emergency. He wanted to ask her if something was wrong, but couldn't find the words.
He glanced down at his hands and noticed that the markings were swirling and moving in strange ways again. It felt odd like something was moving under his skin.
'I think,' he said slowly as he stared down at his left hand, "That something is wrong with me."
Both he and Reyna stopped in their tracks just before reaching the door to their house. The timber of his voice had changed. No longer was it soft, telepathic speech. It was that of a real voice.
"Yeaahh. I'm going to say something here is a ... little less than normal," the demoness said slowly as she stared over at her Shadow. His skin was shifting and visibly crawling in a way that made her shutter.
He groaned and dropped down to his knees.
Reyna moved towards him and placed one hand on his back and brushed his hair aside to try and soothe him. "Hey, kiddo. You're going to be okay, alright? Athan'll know what to do. He always does," she said in an attempt to reassure him.
"I don't think he really knows this time," came a scratchy, low voice from behind Mystic's dark hands that he held firmly to his face. "He just has to guess. I'm the oldest. So. I.. he doesn't know until I..." he trailed off as another sharp pang shot through him. It felt like there was lightening dancing against his skin.
The demoness drew away slightly and tried to lift Mystic's head up to meet her gaze. There was something black and oozing from his left eye, and it seemed like the entire left side of his body had changed color. To see the change in his form right before her eyes was something new entirely. Whenever he'd grown or changed before it was never whens he was present.
"It.. it wasn't like this before," he hissed out between shaking breaths, "T-that's why."
"Shh," Reyna told him as she tried to draw him up to his feet. She couldn't help the startled gasp that escaped her as he stood, and she was able to get a good look at his sudden transformation.
She had been right. His left eye was oozing and emitting a strange mist of magic. Her hand shot up to the eyepatch that covered her own eye. It seemed even then he was still absorbing traits from her.
Really, it wasn't his eye that threw her off. She knew well enough what her own damaged eye looked like; it was the jagged slightly gaping maw across his face.
"Come inside," she insisted, "We need to get something for your eye."
Mystic simply nodded and followed along on wobbly feet. He felt strange. His skin felt over sensitized. Most of all, he was worried. He was worried about what this change meant, and he was concerned for his guardian. She never really fretted over him this much. She also kept calling him kiddo. That was an endearment he hadn't heard from her in years.
He stepped inside the house and for a moment the world seemed to spin. He went from standing in the doorway to sitting on the edge of Reyna's bed, and he wasn't entirely certain how.
"You're going to need this," she said as she tied a sort of makeshift eyepatch across his left eye.
The fabric was soft and felt cool to his skin. It was a welcome relief to a pain he hadn't quite become fully aware of yet. He sighed contentedly. It was like a cool balm over a sore burn.
"It's spelled?"
Reyna nodded. "Same fabric I use for my eye," she told him with a small smile. "It'll keep whatever crazy magic that's uh.. leaking from your face from getting everywhere and contaminating everything."
Mystic smiled, but it quickly turned into a frown as he saw that Reyna didn't return the expression. She mostly looked somewhat disturbed. He glanced past her to the mirror of her bureau and his eyes widened in horror.
"I look like a monster," he hissed.
"Honey," the demoness said as she reached to pat him atop his head, "You only say that because you've not seen me in my true form."
He laughed along with her at her half-joke, half-truth, but there was a hysterical edge to it.
"Come on now," she urged, "Let's get you off to bed for nap. You look like s**t and clearly need some rest for..." She paused and motioned to all of him, "Whatever this is."
He nodded despite how it made him impossibly dizzy and allowed Reyna to drag him to his own room so that he could collapse into bed.
